The invention relates generally to coaxial cables, and, more particularly, to electrical connector assemblies for coaxial cables.
Due to their favorable electrical characteristics, coaxial cables and connectors have grown in popularity for interconnecting electronic devices and peripheral systems. Typically, coaxial cable connectors are mounted to a circuit board of an electronic device at an input/output port of the device and extend through an exterior housing of the device for connection with a mating connector, typically in the form of a cable and plug assembly. The coaxial cable connectors include an inner conductor coaxially disposed within an outer conductor, with a dielectric material separating the inner and outer conductors.
Typically, each coaxial cable connector on the circuit board is installed on the board separately. Moreover, each coaxial cable is often separately mated to, and unmated from, the corresponding coaxial cable connector. However, as the number of interconnects on the circuit board increase, so does the number of coaxial cable connectors that need to be installed on the board and mated with a corresponding coaxial cable. At least some known coaxial cable connectors may therefore be difficult and/or time consuming to install and/or to mate and unmate with the corresponding coaxial cables. Separately mating and unmating each of the coaxial cable connectors with the corresponding coaxial cable may also be difficult because of a relatively small size of some known coaxial cable connectors. For example, it may be difficult to mate and unmate the coaxial cable connectors with the corresponding coaxial cable by hand. Often, a specialized tool must be used to mate and/or unmate a coaxial cable with the corresponding coaxial cable connector.
There is a need for a coaxial cable connector that is more easily installed on a circuit board or other portion of an electronic device. There is also a need for a coaxial cable connector that is more easily mated and unmated with a coaxial cable.